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“If that’s what it takes,” Leo replied.
“How long am I supposed to hide out here? Forever? I have to work.”
“We’re going around in circles,” Dane huffed, and was the first to turn and start walking away. “I’ll get you some clothes.”
“Thanks,” I answered, somewhat relieved to end the confrontation as I followed Dane back to his room.
Leo didn’t come with us.
I could feel Leo’s frustration even after I’d left him standing there. He believed the threat was real. My gut said the same. He wasn’t arguing just to be an asshole, he was insisting because he already cared enough about me to not want to see me dead.
Yeah, I didn’t want to see me dead either.
He meant well, but that didn’t change my mind.
I dealt in the tangibles. The things that were right in front of me.
Like work.
And my walk-in freezer full of baking ingredients that wouldn’t bake themselves.
If I had to dodge bullets this afternoon to be ready for tomorrow’s two catering gigs, then so be it. I couldn’t let my business go under, especially since Leo offered no clear timeline. The events tomorrow night had to go on.
Ten minutes later, I was wearing one of Dane’s button-down shirts and his sweat pants, rolled up a few times so they didn’t fall off my waist. He found me a pair of flip flops as my stilettos didn’t go too well with the ensemble. Grabbing my purse, I threw my dress over my forearm, got my shoes from the living room, and found Leo waiting for us at the front door.
“I’m driving,” he said, more to Dane than to me, then held the door open.
I followed Dane to the elevators, and none of us spoke on the ride down to the garage. Leo helped me into the back passenger side of the black SUV with dark tinted windows, ensured I put on my seatbelt.
“Where are we headed?”
“We?” I asked.
“If you want to work, fine. I’ll be with you.”
My mouth fell open, but I could see through the rearview mirror I wasn’t going to sway him.
“I do my catering prep at a little place I rent on the corner on the Upper West Side, but I live about ten blocks from there.”
“Apartment first, then work,” Leo said as he backed the car out of the spot.
After a quick stop at my apartment and a bit of a drive through bustling midmorning traffic, we were parked outside my workplace. Leo announced that it was safer for him to take a look around before I went in, so I gave him the keys while I waited in the car with Dane.
“Is he always like this?” I asked.
Dane glanced over his shoulder at me. “Always. For those he cares about.”
Before I could ask after that little bombshell, Leo was back, opening my door for me and leading me inside with a warm hand at the small of my back.
I glanced around. Everything was as I left it. Neat, clean and organized. The comfort and familiarity of the space was reassuring.
But having Leo and Dane there, big and so out of place, made me a little uncomfortable.
They were total opposites. Crisp businessman and brawny bouncer side by side. But they bot
h cared about me, in a possessive, dominant sort of way that had me appreciative. And aroused. I’d had boyfriends before, for months, even, but they’d never behaved like this toward me. I was too independent, they’d say when we broke up.
But Dane and Leo seemed to like my self-reliance, but wouldn’t bend where my safety was concerned. It felt...good. Even if they were looming over me in the small space.
